Thursday, December 26, 2013

A group of architecture students visited
Ellington Field at the Johnson Space Center in Houston this November to
participate in NASA's 2013 Minority University Research and Education Program
(MUREP) Education Flight Program. NASA selected the ENV students (Martin Saet,
Garrett Sanne,Brice Colton, Andrew Cartwright, and Brianna Wiley) for their
proposal “Boredom in Space: Experimental Application of Remote Sensor Video
Gaming in Micro Gravity.” The research proposal frames the need for the
experiment as follows: “As human spaceflight demonstrates increasing
possibilities for long-duration or deep-space missions, one factor that we must
consider is the mental health of the crew. Living and working within a small
environment for a period of several months is psychologically taxing, and may
lead to crew discomfort and sub-optimal mission performance. The purpose of Boredom
in Space: Experimental Application of Remote Sensor Video Gaming in Micro
Gravity is to assess the feasibility of using popular video gaming products
with intuitive, motion-based input devices (e.g. the Nintendo Wii) to provide
future astronauts with a means of recreation.” Before the trip, the
students developed their own experiment and crafted the equipment for use in
the zero-gravity flight. The trip to Houston included such highlights as a VIP
tour of the Johnson Space Center and, of course, the zero-gravity flight—all
made possible by crowd-sourced funding from GoFundMe and additional financial
support by NASA, ENV, and the National Space Grant Foundation.